The 10 Best Game of Thrones Moments That I Heard Were Pretty Cool

A confession: I’ve never seen an episode of Game of Thrones. With the series ending Sunday, I figure now is as good a time as ever to publicly admit this cultural blindspot. But this has never been performative Thrones hatred; I simply just never got around to watching it. By the time I thought I might catch up and finally see what the fuss is about, I had seven daunting seasons taunting me. Someday I’ll block off a couple months for a proper binge. Someday.

But while I haven’t technically watched a minute of Thrones (except for one clip), I feel like I've watched it vicariously through Twitter, podcasts, and my friends who've given up on getting me to join the GoT club long ago. So I think I have a basic grasp on most of the characters’ motivations and enough understanding of the general plot to participate in the occasional pub conversation—or, at the very least, appreciate all the memes.

That’s why, using only my peripheral knowledge, I’ve created this excellent listicle counting down the top 10 most badass, jaw-dropping moments from the last eight seasons of Game of Thrones. They definitely sound cool, and I’ve tried my best to piece together what I think probably happened in each one. But this information could and is likely to be completely, irresponsibly inaccurate.

So farewell, Game of Thrones. Seems like you were a pretty good show—or maybe not?

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10. Cersei Blows Shit Up

Cersei is or was a character on Game of Thrones. I’m fairly certain she had something to do with dragons. Maybe she’s the Mother of Dragons? Again, I don’t know. Please don’t ask me. But I remember this moment from gifs. She burned at least one big building, presumably killed some people, and smiled at the carnage, according to the gifs. Here’s a video of the scene, which I haven’t watched.

9. Jon Snow Dies

I definitely remember when Jon Snow, who I think is the main character on Game of Thrones, died. What I can’t tell you is how he died, which I’m sorry about. But when he died, I had a lot of friends on Facebook who were pretty upset. And why wouldn’t they be? Jon Snow was a great character on Game of Thrones I think. Here’s a video of the scene, which I haven’t watched.

8. Jon Snow Comes Back to Life!

Whoa! I guess the deal with Game of Thrones is that you can die and then just start living again through some kind of sorcery—maybe from dragons?—which is what I think happened here. I, personally, was glad to see Jon Snow return to Game of Thrones, because the guy who plays him, Kit Harington, was very funny in 7 Days in Hell. I watched that twice, but unfortunately, I did not watch this video.

7. The Hold the Door Thing

Hodor was a character on Game of Thrones who died holding the door. What I think happened was for several years, the only word he said was his name—Hodor, that much I know—and it was a mystery as to why. But in this scene, which I haven’t watched, he dies holding the door, which sounds like “Hodor.” Honestly, this is all kind of confusing and probably wrong, but a lot of my friends do the Hodor voice and I have to admit that I’ve occasionally done it, too.

6. Ned Stark Gets His Head Chopped Off

I remember this pretty well: Ned Stark was the hero of Game of Thrones during the first season, but then on the finale, they chopped his head off with a sword. Back then, Twitter wasn’t the raging hellfire that it is now, but there were still a ton of angry tweets after this happened, because how can they just do that? Well, they did just do that, and here’s a video of the scene. I haven’t watched it.

5. The Red Wedding

Game of Thrones is a show about weddings. At this one, a lot of characters died, including the band Coldplay, for some reason? I know Ed Sheeran and Aaron Rodgers were also on Game of Thrones, but I can’t say with certainty that they died at this wedding. You can find out for sure in this video, which I haven’t watched.

4. The Purple Wedding

Another wedding! I get why that last one was red (the blood), but I can’t begin to guess why this one is purple. It’s such a peaceful color. My wife’s bridesmaids wore purple dresses at our wedding and no one died there. I’ve watched that wedding video a bunch of times, but I haven’t watched this one.

3. The Battle of Winterfell

The Battle of Winterfell was years in the making, and it was epic. What is Winterfell? Couldn’t say. But I do know that no one could actually make out what was happening during this battle, and people were pissed. Here’s the video, which I haven’t watched—and even if you did, you probably couldn’t see it.

2. The Starbucks Cup Thing

The Internet was also incensed about the Game of Thrones people accidentally leaving a Starbucks coffee cup in the background of a scene. The Game of Thrones people were so humiliated by their blunder, in fact, that they digitally removed the cup after the uproar, which is terrific. Starbucks doesn’t exist in Westeros, which is the main country in Game of Thrones. With this moment, I just saw the photo, but not the video. Watch it here.

1. The Mountain Gouges Some Dude's Eyes Out

This is the best and only clip from Game of Thrones that I’ve ever seen, which features The Mountain—just a comically big man—crushing some guy’s eyes so hard that they gush blood everywhere. When this happened, I remember everyone in my life (on the internet and IRL) was so grossed out that for the first time in Game of Thrones history, I felt compelled to track down this clip and witness the scene with my own eyes. It totally delivered, and in that moment, Game of Thrones became my favorite show of all time.

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